


hello, welcome home

by merthurxmalec



Series: heart made of glass [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fix-It of Sorts, Happy Ending, I am just trying to give Steve and Tony the happy ending they deserve, LOOK AWAY NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT, M/M, SERIOUSLY ITS ALL MAJOR SPOILERS, Sort Of, minor Peter/mj, minor bucky/nat, minor thor/bruce, y'all know which scene in particular
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-04 16:37:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18608392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merthurxmalec/pseuds/merthurxmalec
Summary: SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS ENDGAME~When Steve opens his eyes, he is back.He finds himself in front of Tony’s lab, sees him through the glass doors and almost collapses right there and then.He looks so alive.





	1. i'm going back to the start

**Author's Note:**

> so here's the part two promised :) 
> 
> title is from 'The Scientist' by Coldplay, which is probably the most stevetony song I have ever heard.

When Steve opens his eyes, he is back.

 

He finds himself in front of Tony’s lab, sees him through the glass doors and almost collapses right there and then.

 

_He looks so alive._

Tony is there, alive and whole, his AC/DC t-shirt smeared with grease and motor oil, an expanse of empty mugs of coffee scattered on the table in front of him, a clear proof of the countless hours he has probably spent in the lab. Steve can tell he has music playing, because Tony’s hips are swaying rhythmically, his head bobbing to a fast tune as he stares at the screen in front of him. His face is lit up in blue – the blue screen, the blue reactor, and he looks absolutely ethereal.

 

Steve doesn’t know how long he stands there, his eyes glassy with unshed tears. He sees this Tony, a little bruised from the encounter they had with Loki not too long ago, but Tony – alive. He drinks in the image of him, tries to erase the picture of Tony that has been etched into his brain in the last few weeks – the image of a bruised Tony, a burnt Tony, a dead Tony. Instead, he tries replacing it with this Tony – happy, and whole. He raises his hand up, pressing his palm over the glass, his large arms covering Tony’s face. He pretends it is his face Steve is holding, tries to imagine l the rough stubble of his beard, or the softness of his skin, the fluttering of his eyelashes. Steve remembers how they all felt, and yet he wishes he didn’t. He knew how the sensation he felt when Tony’s eyelashes tickled his skin, knew because he had bent over his lifeless form and closed his eyes after he had slept away from the abyss Steve would never get him back from.

 

“ _Tony,”_ he whispered, his voice hoarse and broken. Tony didn’t hear him, could not have heard him, not with the soundproof glass separating them but he looked up, his head whipping in the direction of Steve. He stared for a second, confused, before his mouth moved, and the door slid open.

 

“Hey Cap,” he said pleasantly, his voice warm and light, and Steve choked back a sob. “What are you doing here? Everything okay in D.C.?”

 

“Yeah,” Steve says, trying to regain control of his broken voice. “Yeah, I just…” he takes a deep breath, “I just wanted to see you.” He sees the frown on Tony’s face, the crinkle on his forehead as he assesses Steve’s form. He adds quickly, “do you want to get some lunch?”

 

Tony continues looking at him, searching his eyes for an answer. Steve tries his best to school his face, try not to let the grief show. But Tony must have seen something, because he smiles, a genuine smile that lit up his face – a smile that Steve thought he would never get to see again. “I could eat,” he says.

 

Steve smiles at him and thinks:

 

_It is going to kill me to leave you here, again._

They go to a little diner two blocks from the Tower.

 

Steve has been here before, obviously, because this is Tony’s favourite diner. He knows the people who own it – an elderly couple who didn’t get phased neither by his fame nor his reputation. He waves at them as he walks in, Steve in tow, and slides into the corner booth Steve knows is his favourite.

 

He orders a cheeseburger – his favourite – and Steve asks for a milkshake, and then they sit in silence. Tony fidgets, and Steve can tell he is feeling awkward. It makes sense – the last time he was supposed to have seen Tony, they had parted civilly, but not as friends. Tony has questions, he knows, and Steve doesn’t know how to answer them. He doesn’t know what to say either, to be honest, because he is too busy trying to commit every angle of Tony’s face to his memory.

 

Tony notices, because of course he does.

 

“Do I have something on my face?” he asks with a laugh; a laugh Steve knows is fake and forced.

 

“No,” Steve says, “no, Tony. You are perfect.” He knows he is looking at him with an intensity that must be weird to Tony, but he can’t help it. He knows what is going to happen, the loss a constant warning ringing in his ears. _Five seconds_ , Bruce had said. He has five seconds, and he needs to make it count.

 

Tony blushes under his gaze, his olive skin tinted with a dab of red that makes him look so adorable. Something about the way Tony is looking at him makes him look away, his eyes bouncing across the room until they land on a jukebox tucked in the corner. He smiles, standing up suddenly to walk over to the jukebox. He can feel Tony’s puzzled gaze following his movements, but he ignores it, choosing to instead slide a coin in and press the 3rdbutton.

 

Slow music fills the room.

 

“This is my favourite song,” Tony says, his voice low.

 

_I know,_ Steve wants to say, _I know._

He holds his hand out instead.

 

“Dance with me,” he asks instead. A slow smile spreads across Tony’s face, and he springs up to take Steve’s hands with a genuine laugh.

 

They’re the only ones in the diner, and he can feel Tony relaxed against his body. Tony doesn’t hold him the way Peggy did, her head on his chest. No, Tony wraps his arms around Steve’s shoulders, protesting with a _I am not a girl, Rogers!_ When Steve holds his waist. The music carries on, but Steve looks only into Tony’s eyes and thinks: _this is the right shade of brown._

_Tell me you love me_

_Come back and haunt me_

_Oh and I rush to the start_   
_Running in circles, chasing our tails_   
_Coming back as we are_

“Are you okay, Cap?” Tony asks softly, his breath a pleasant tickle on his face.

 

“I am right where I want to be,” Steve says.

 

Tony’s face tilts up, and Steve’s lips meet him half-way.

 

_Nobody said it was easy_  
_Oh it's such a shame for us to part_  
 _Nobody said it was easy_  
 _No one ever said it would be so hard_  
 _I'm going back to the start_

Five seconds, he remembers Steve thinking. Five seconds for them, but for Steve it will be however long he needs.

 

This is it – this is what he needs.


	2. something's on my mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You said, ‘We’ll do that together too.’ And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren’t there. 
> 
> But he can be here, this time around. He can stop it, stop all of it. He can save Tony. 
> 
> “Okay,” he says, pressing a kiss to Tony’s forehead. 
> 
> “We’ll do it together.” 
> 
> ~ 
> 
> or: Steve tries to choose between his head and his heart.

Steve needs to tell Tony.

 

He knows that, deep down. He has hidden things from Tony before, and he has spent every day of the last seven years regretting that decision. The thing is, Tony and he were friends – not close, not in the way Steve had hoped, but they were friends. Steve didn’t really know why he kept pulling away from Tony. The eccentric billionaire had certainly tried to leave their rocky start in the past, offer a fresh start where they were both the friends they could have been, the friends they wanted to be. Steve never extended the same courtesy towards Tony, though. He always thought it was the guilt that prevented him from getting close, the fact that he was hiding such a big truth from Tony. He didn’t feel he deserved Tony’s trust or friendship or respect – still doesn’t, in fact – but it wasn’t until he was in the Quinjet, minutes or maybe hours after leaving Tony in the cold snow of Siberia that he realised why he needed to keep that distance from Tony so desperately.

 

Steve Rogers is in love with Tony Stark.

 

He almost turned the Quinjet back, then, because _oh god he loves him he loves him so much._

Steve hadn’t felt that kind of love in years – decades – not since Peggy, at least. He had thought Peggy was it for him, and the day he had carried her casket on his shoulders was the day he accepted his fate. Steve Rogers was doomed to live a lifetime without feeling love. He thought he had one shot, and he had lost it.

 

But that day on the Quinjet, he saw Tony’s face without the cloud he had covered his eyes with, the cloud that made everything seem grey. He saw the way Tony’s erupted with colour, the way he vibrated with the energy that had long since dissipated out of Steve. For about two seconds, the realisation had filled his heart with a joy he had almost forgotten the feeling of.

 

He was in love! He was in love with a brilliant man, a man who shone blue and red and gold.

 

In the third second, he remembered.

 

He was in love with a brilliant man who shone blue – the blue light he had snuffed out with the edge of his shield.

 

He was in love with a brilliant man who shone gold – the gold he had scratched and tainted as he had fought him mere hours ago, each punch leaving a scar Steve knew could never be undone.  

 

He was in love with a brilliant man who shone red – red as the anger reflected on his face when he found out he had been betrayed by the person he called friend.

 

Steve Rogers loved him, but he didn’t deserve him.

 

He made peace with the fact, too. He was used to not getting what he wants, of living without love.

 

But then the world ended, and he came back.

 

“I got nothing for you, Steve!” he had said, his face sullen and so so broken. _He has got nothing for him, because he gave him nothing._

“You weren’t there!” Tony had said. _I wasn’t, Steve thought. I promised him we would do it together, but I wasn’t there._

“Liar!” Tony had said, ripping his heart out and placing it in Steve’s hands.

_Oh Tony,_ Steve remembers thinking. _Tony, I don’t deserve your heart._

Tony Stark was the stars, and Steve Rogers was the sea, and they were destined to be apart.

 

But they weren’t – not right now. Tony was here, on the other side of the bed they had found themselves sharing in the last month. He had rolled over last night, sweaty and sated, to pillow his head on Steve’s chest. Steve had wrapped his arms around him, staring at his face a long time. He knows he has to go back; knows he is on borrowed time. He can’t stay here forever, has responsibilities back in his time he needs to fulfil. This time’s Steve may be back at any moment, and then Tony will have to find out the hard way.

 

He almost tells Tony, every day, walks into the room prepared to tell him the truth and leaving the choice up to him, of what he wants to do. But then Tony looks up from whatever it is he is working on or comes up to Steve and presses a kiss on his cheek, and Steve falters. He has wanted this for so long, and he has it now. He can have it now. And so, he keeps his mouth shut, always telling himself that it’s not the right time. Tony had a nightmare today, saw the wormhole swallowing him whole and Steve can’t tell him about the future now, can he? Of a future where he gets lost in space, how he gets saved at the nick of time, but almost doesn’t – he doesn’t tell him, because he is scared. He mentions SHIELD sending him information about HYDRA bases, about how they suspect that HYDRA have been experimenting on human volunteers, and Steve almost tells him about the twins, about the visions he will be made to see in a couple years of time that will come through – he nearly tells him, but he doesn’t, because he is ashamed. He talks about needing to go to Malibu on a small business trip, and Steve almost tells him about the Mandarin, about the home he is going to lose soon. But he doesn’t, because he is a coward.

 

He is a coward, because he has spent so long wishing, hoping, pining – and he has all he wants now. He isn’t strong enough to let go of it.

 

And so, he pretends, balances several boxes of pizza on one hand and walks into Tony’s office where Pepper (his future _wife_ , Pepper) has him quarantined with a large stack of files he must read and sign. Tony looks up gratefully, smiles at him with such intensity that Steve almost blinded by it. He is holding cheap card paper in his hands, the artistic splashes of colour visible from where Steve is standing. He walks over to Tony, leaning down to press a chaste kiss on his lips. Tony expects it too, because he tilts his head up in anticipation. It blows Steve’s mind sometimes, how well they know each other, how well they work together.

 

“That doesn’t look like corporate files, sweetheart,” he says playfully, depositing himself on the large armchair beside Tony.

 

“Corporate files are boring, that’s what Pepper is for!” Tony says. “I was just looking through some fan mail I got. This kid drew a really nice picture of us and wrote a really nice letter. He seems to be a bit of a genius.”

 

Tony holds the picture up, a drawing of all the Avengers standing together holding hands. Steve laughs, the picture warming his heart. He surveys the picture, nodding impressively at how well drawn it is, especially considering the kid can’t be more than eight or nine years old. As he is surveying, though, his eyes land on the signature at the bottom of the page.

 

**_Peter Parker._ **

 

It feels like a sign from the universe.

 

He takes a deep breath, because this is it.

 

“Tony,” he says quietly, his tone suddenly sombre. Tony must have noticed the sudden change in tone too, because his gaze is laced with worry. “I need to talk to you… I need to tell you something.”

 

“What is it, honey?” Tony says, and Steve almost gives up at that moment, _because goddamnit he can’t lose this!_ He presses on though, because he has to.

 

“I am…” he takes a deep breath. “I am not your Steve.”

 

Tony looks at him for a long moment.

 

“I know,” he says.

 

Steve’s eyes widen.

 

“You… you know?”

 

Tony shrugs. “Did you ever consider that the old Steve might call me at some point in the last couple of months?”

 

Steve hadn’t considered it, because he knew he hadn’t the first time.

 

“I got a call from him a couple of weeks ago. Got JARVIS to scan you afterwards. Turns out you carry a time stamp. From nearly 12 years in the future.”

 

“Why didn’t you ask me about it?”

 

“Well, if you’re from the future clearly I figured out time travel, and time is fragile, Cap. I assumed you can’t answer any questions I ask anyway.”

 

“Who said you figure it out?” Steve laughed out.

 

Tony smirks, “Come on, Rogers – who else could?”

 

Steve could not even argue against it.

 

“I just want to know one thing,” Tony says quietly. “Why are you here?”

 

Steve looks into his eyes. He stands up and moves forward until he is standing right in front of Tony. Kneeling down, he cups his face. “I needed to see you,” he whispers.

 

Steve can see the exact moment Tony understands, because he closes his eyes and lets out a deep breath, leaning into Steve’s touch. Steve continues, “I wasn’t going to stay, I just came to take a look at you, just see you once before I had to go back to my time. But then you looked up, and you smiled at me and I wasn’t strong enough to walk away. I couldn’t.”

 

Tony tilts his head slightly, pressing a soft kiss to Steve’s hand.

 

“You don’t have to,” he says. “You can stay here – we’ll figure something out about the other Steve. You don’t have to go.” _You don’t have to leave me_ remains unsaid, though they both hear it.

 

“I don’t want to, sweetheart,” he says, “but there are people waiting for me over there, people who need me. People you told me to look after.” His eyes dart to the paper that is lying forgotten next to Tony, the small _Peter Parker_ scrawled on the bottom visible to Steve’s even from a distance, an ever-present reminder. Tony’s eyes follow his movement. He looks at Steve again, questions evident in his eyes. 

 

"Is that what made you finally tell me? he asks. "This... this kid?" 

 

Steve smiles softly. "He isn't just any kid," Steve says. "He is a kid who is going to go on to meaning a lot to you, soon. That's all I can tell you, sweetheart. I already fractured time enough just by being here." 

 

“Please stay,” he whispers again, “it doesn’t have to end in the same way it did last time, in your time. Whatever it is, we can defeat it. Together.”

 

_You said, ‘We’ll do that together too.’ And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren’t there._

But he can be here, this time around. He can stop it, stop all of it. He can save Tony.

 

“Okay,” he says, pressing a kiss to Tony’s forehead.

 

“We’ll do it together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!! nothing much happened in it, unfortunately, but hopefully we'll see a bit more action in the next one. 
> 
> (and finally meet the other Avengers again!)


	3. take me back to the start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Past-Steve leans back on his chair, his shoulders slumped with defeat. 
> 
> "I owe Fury 20 more bucks."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here is the last chapter of this story!! 
> 
> title from 'the scientist' by Coldplay

As it turns out, past-Steve takes the news like a champ.

 

“You’re from the future?” he asks future-Steve, his eyes widening slightly.

 

“Yes.”

 

“And you want to stay here in the past?”

 

A nod.

 

Past-Steve glances at Tony and Steve’s intertwined hands.

 

“And you two are… together?”

 

They both nod.

 

Past-Steve leans back on his chair, his shoulders slumped with defeat.

 

“I owe Fury another 20 bucks.”

 

* * *

 

 

Steve finds Steve – Rogers, as he has been mentally calling his alternate version in his head – leaning against the balcony of the tower.

 

“It is a chilly night,” he says, as way of greeting. “Not sleep?”

 

“I slept for 70 years,” Rogers replies. “I think I’ve had my fill.”

 

Steve laughs in response, “yeah, I’ve heard that one before.”

 

Rogers turns to look at him. “That day… it was you I fought wasn’t it?”

 

Steve nods. He knows what is coming next.

 

“What you said about Bucky… is it true?”

 

Steve places a hand on his shoulder. “Yeah,” he says. “He’s alive. You’ll be given a mission in DC soon. You’ll find him then.”

 

He sees hope in his counterpart’s eyes; in a way he doesn’t think he ever saw in himself. “Is he okay?” Rogers croaks out, his overwhelming emotions apparent.

 

“No,” Steve replies honestly. “But he will be.”

 

They stare at the New York skyline for a while, both lost in their own thoughts.

 

“If there is a way to time-travel,” Rogers continues, “does that mean I could…”

 

“Yes,” Steve replies.

 

Rogers looks at him with a silent question in his eyes. “Why didn’t you take the opportunity, then?” he asks. “Why did you come back here?”

 

“Because the past – your past – that isn’t my home anymore. I lost my home. This is the only place I could find him.”

 

“You love him that much?” Rogers asks sincerely.

 

“More than I ever thought was possible,” Steve replies honestly. “When I – we – when we came into this world, we had nobody. No one. But Tony, he – he gave us a purpose. He gave us somewhere to belong. He gave us a home. Honestly, I feel like I am taking that home away from you.”

 

Rogers places a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You know, I knew you aren’t me, even before you told me your ridiculous story about time travel. You know why?” He doesn’t wait for Steve to answer. “Because you have this grief in your eyes, like you’ve seen the world fall apart in front of you. If he is truly what makes you happy, you deserve to take this chance.”

 

Steve nods at him gratefully, and together they hold a silent vigil for their past, and their future.

* * *

 

“What the fuck??” Natasha says the next morning, walking into the kitchen where Steve and Rogers are both making pancakes.

 

“Ah,” Tony says, walking into the kitchen and pressing a tender kiss on Steve’s cheeks. “I see you have met our resident doppelgangers.”

 

“What the fuck,” Nat says again. Steve thinks distantly that this is the only time in all these years Steve has seen Nat look so shocked.

 

Oh god, - _Nat._

 

“Natasha,” Steve breathes out, running to her and pulling her into a hug. She remains Steve against his body, but he doesn’t care – not in this moment. _He hadn’t given gotten to say goodbye._

He catches Tony’s eyes from across the room, can tell what Tony is thinking.

 

_Her too?_ His eyes speak out. Steve gives a slight nod.

 

“Can someone explain to me what the ever-loving fuck is going on?” Nat says, looking at Steve with curious eyes.

And so, for the third time in a day, Steve tells his story.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Steve caves in when the first mention of the Winter Soldier comes up on their radar.

 

The team are all huddled together in their meeting room, strategizing ways in which they could catch the Winter Soldier out. Steve stays quiet during the discussion, speaking only when spoken to. The team all know the truth, know how little Steve can truly discuss with them, and for the most part they adhere to the rules Steve and Tony had set out for them, all those months ago.

 

Today? Not so much.

 

“Say, Cap,” Clint says, “you probably know where this Winter Soldier dude is. Why don’t you just tell us and speed up the process?”

 

Tony smacks Clint across the head, “you know why, bird-brain.”

 

“I’m just sayin’” Clint continues, “it would probably save so many lives.”

 

“Shut up, Clint,” Nat says.

 

Steve can’t take this anymore.

 

“His name is James Buchanan Barnes,” Steve says suddenly. Five pairs of eyes shot towards him. “He was, is, my best friend. He got fell off a train not long before I went down with the Valkyrie. I, well I thought he was dead, until I came across the Winter Soldier.”

 

He takes a deep breath. “He was brainwashed by HYDRA. Kept in some kind of cryogenic freezer for 70 years. At this point, he probably doesn’t even remember who he is.”

 

“Where is he?” Bruce asks.

 

“I don’t know,” Steve admits. “Nat and I – well, your Steve – were supposed to find him in DC. But I think I changed the past somehow, coming here. I don’t know where he is.”

 

Tony looks at him for a long time. “All right,” he says, clapping his hands. “Let’s blow this popsicle stand. I need to speak with Cap here, alone.”

 

He barely waits for the others to leave before pulling Steve into a bone crushing hug. Steve bends his head slightly, tucking it into Tony’s shoulder.

 

“We’ll find him, Steve,” Tony murmurs, rubbing soothing circles on his back. “I promise.”

 

Steve knows he has to tell Tony.

“Tony,” he says, pulling away from the hug.  “I need to tell you something.”

 

“Steve, honey,” Tony begins. “If it is about the future, you know you can’t tell me.”

 

“It isn’t,” Steve says. “it’s about the past.”

 

He takes a deep breath, looking into Tony’s encouraging eyes.

 

“Bucky killed your parents.”

 

Tony physically flinches back, and Steve remembers, remembers that flinch and he drops on the chair, his chest heaving with sobs.

 

Tony leaves without a word.

 

* * *

 

 

Tony slips into their bed a few hours later.

 

“Steve,” he whispers into the dark. “Steve.”

 

Steve’s hands reach out to stroke Tony’s cheek, and Tony leans into the touch.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

 

“I was scared,” Steve replies. “Last time, everything went to shit when I told you. I know that was my own fault, I should have told you as soon as I found out. But I still lost you, Tony. This is how I lost you. I couldn’t bear it to happen again.”

 

“Hey,” Tony says. “I’m not going to leave you over this. I understand why you did it, and I understand it’s not his fault either. I was angry at first, when you told me. I wanted to find him and strange him with my bare hands. But I know now that it’s not his fault.”

 

They both stay silent for a minute.

 

“We’ll find him, Steve, and we’ll bring him back. I promise.”

 

“Thank you,” Steve whispers sincerely, his lips ghosting over Tony’s skin.

 

Tony sits up on the bed, pulling Steve up with him. He bites his lips for a moment, a tell-tale sign Steve knows means he is nervous.

 

“What is it, sweetheart?” Steve asks, stroking Tony’s arm.

 

“Steve, I can guess what happens in the future,” he looks up to meet Steve’s eyes. “I die, don’t I?”

 

Steve nods, “yes.”

 

Tony lets out a quiet breath.

 

“How?”

 

“The world had ended, Tony,” Steve says. “You saved it again. It cost you your life.”

 

“In this other timeline, were we together?” Tony asks.

 

“No,” Steve says. “I waited too long and lost any chance of love I could have with you. You didn’t love me.”

 

“You’re wrong,” Tony says. “There is no version of me that couldn’t love you, Steve Rogers.” He leans up to kiss him. “You’re my sure thing.”

 

Steve cups Tony’s face and pulls him close. “I love you, too, Tony.” He whispers against his lips. “I always have.”

 

* * *

 

 

Tony proposes on a warm spring evening.

 

Tony will tell him later that he had no plans of doing it that day – he was going to wait until their anniversary, in front of the Louvre during a romantic trip to Paris. But they were at a gala, one of the many Stark Industries ones Tony always managed to guilt Steve into attending, and a song had started playing.

 

_Come up to meet you_  
Tell you I'm sorry  
You don't know how lovely you are  
I had to find you  
Tell you I need you  
Tell you I set you apart

Steve smiled, remembering a time only a few years ago when that same song had played in a dingy diner in Manhattan. He met Tony’s eyes from across the room, where Tony was talking to Hope van Dyne, and saw Tony walk up to him, gracefully holding his hand out.

 

“May I have this dance, sir?” he says with a flirty tone.

 

Steve laughs, taking Tony’s hands in his own and leading them to the dance floor. They both hold onto each other, swaying to the slow rhythm of the music, Tony leaning his head on Steve’s shoulder.

 

_Tell me you love me_  
Come back and haunt me  
Oh and I rush to the start  
Running in circles, chasing our tails  
Coming back as we are

“Marry me,” Tony mumbles into his shoulder, and Steve pulls apart, just an inch.

 

“What?” Steve asks, confused.

 

“You fucking heard me, Rogers,” Tony says. “You have super-hearing.”

 

“Stark,” Steve corrects.

 

“What?” Tony echoes, dumbly.

 

“I’ll be Stark, soon,” Steve replies. “Better get used to it.”

 

Tony grins, a grin that etches across his face, and Steve knows it is reflected on his face, too.

 

“Stark-Rogers,” Tony counters. “And that is non-negotiable.”

 

Steve leans down to kiss him. “Okay,” he says against his lips. “Deal.”

 

* * *

 

 

Tony Stark dies on a cold November morning.

 

It was his heart that had given up, at an impressive age of 86. Tony and Steve had moved to a small town on the outskirts of New York by now, in a small house by a lake. Steve spent his days painting on the small balcony Tony had built him – Tony had built the entire house by hand – the lake glistening in the sunlight in the background. Tony had his own workshop in the corner of the garden too, because hell would have to break loose before Tony Stark stopped inventing. They hosted Sunday lunch every week, their whole makeshift family making sure to attend, come hell or high water. Natasha and Bucky – a pair that Steve hadn’t ever thought of, but one that seemed to fit almost as if made for each other – would drive up with Bruce and Thor, another unlikely pair. Peter, now the CEO of Stark Industries, would keep his schedule clear on Sundays no matter what, him and his family driving up early morning. Peter and Tony would lock themselves in Tony’s lab almost as soon as Peter’s car would pull up, and Michelle and Steve would shake their heads fondly at their eccentric husbands before pulling the kids along to the playroom. Sometimes, Clint’s kids would drive up too, now with families of their own. They would eat the lunch Steve got better at cooking with time, and together they would reminisce about the past.

 

On the day Tony had passed, Steve woke up in the morning and just knew. Tony did too, because he had kissed Steve’s forehead and whispered: “it’s okay.”

 

Steve had called everyone almost immediately, and it didn’t take them too long to show up.

 

As Tony took his last breaths, he has turned to Steve with a cheeky smile. “Did we do it, then?” he rasped out.

 

Steve didn’t need to ask him what he meant.

 

“Yeah,” Steve said, pressing one last kiss to his temple. “We did it, together.”

 

Tony Stark had died surrounded by his family, his son holding one hand and his husband holding the other, his lips pulled in a smile.

 

Scott came up to him after the funeral.

 

“Cap,” he said. “How’re you holding up?”

 

Steve smiles, “I got to live my days with the love of my life,” he replies. “I’m grateful for that.”

 

Scott nods, and then holds a small vial out.

 

“Are those…?” Steve breathes out.

 

“Pym particles,” Scott replies. “So that you can go back.”

 

Steve nods, and Scott walks back to his kids.

 

* * *

 

 

“So you wanna tell me about her?” Sam asks, smirking at the ring on his finger.

 

Steve smiles, his eyes going glassy with memories of a cherished life – of brown eyes with golden flecks and brown curls and a knowing smile.

 

“No,” Steve replies. “I don’t think I will.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some things that need to be addressed that I couldn't fit into the story: 
> 
> Past-Steve is still... somewhere. He tours America for a bit, fights as Captain America for a bit, and then eventually dies during a mission gone wrong. Our Steve retires as Captain America, so the world doesn't randomly see doubles.
> 
> Thanos did happen, but they managed to defeat him in 2 seconds flat because they were together. 
> 
> Tony keeps an eye on Peter pretty much right after Steve tells him about Peter, but doesn't engage until the spider-bite. 
> 
> anyways!! there will be more parts to this series, hopefully soon! Steve still has a lot to work through.

**Author's Note:**

> so this part is going to be multi-chaptered. I have the next part mostly written, but I realised it would flow better as a different chapter. so next chapter should be up soon, hopefully. 
> 
> anyways, as y'all know I am pissed at the way Steve's storyline ended and I'm going to fix it as best as I can. 
> 
> also, because this is totally what I am going to go at the end of every fic I ever write for the rest of my life - this is for Tony Stark, I love you 3000 :')


End file.
